Entrants aged four to 18 sent in designs with a royal theme in the Jewellery Fit for a Prince or Princess contest, which was co-coordinated with the Times.
Hundreds of entries were sent from ten Tunbridge Wells schools and the 300 shortlisted have already been shown during a special exhibition at One Warwick Park Hotel.
This week the Times can reveal the runners-up in the aged ‘four to eight’ category and the ‘nine to 13’ category as well as two in the 14-18 category who received special commendation.
Next week this newspaper will name those who finished first in the three categories. These will be announced by the judges, auctioneers and fine art dealers Simon Webster and Jonathan Gray of Gray-Webster Gallery.
As part of the prize, the first place finishers will receive a voucher for afternoon tea at One Warwick Park Hotel, have their artwork and picture published inside the Times and tour the workshops of G Collins & Sons.
But all who entered are actually winners as G Collins & Sons, a business with more than 30 years’ history on Tunbridge Wells High Street, has agreed to donate £500 to the art departments of each participating school.
When the competition was first announced it was stated only the winner’s school would receive the funding.
A spokesperson for G Collins & Sons said: “The effort of all of these pupils was too great to ignore, the sheer amount of people that got involved and the effort from each and every one of them was phenomenal.
“We are so grateful for everyone’s input and so with that in mind we would actually like to give every school which got involved £500 towards their school’s art department as opposed to only the winners.
“We would also like to invite the three category winners on a tour of our workshops before they go to afternoon tea at One Warwick Park Hotel.
“It was so wonderful seeing the imaginations of children come to life and all their hard work put in.
“I think it’s fantastic for children to be getting involved with art from such a young age and we should encourage it.”
Maxim Gray will receive a £50 voucher from
G Collins & Sons towards his own art supplies, as he was the only pupil to enter from Claremont Primary School.
Well done to all schools who took part in the competition who were:
Brenchley and Matfield CEP School
Goudhurst & Kilndown CEP School
Kent College Pembury
Kent College Prep School
Rusthall, St Paul’s CofE VA Primary School
Saint Ronan’s School
Skinners’ Kent Academy
St. Mark’s CEP School
The Mead
The Wells Free School
…
Aged four to eight category
Ella Oates, eight, of The Mead School
Eva Griffin, five, of Kent College Pembury
Maxim Gray, four, of Claremont Primary School
Alice, six, of Goudhurst School
Madison, seven, of The Wells Free School
Sophie Tennant, six, of Goudhurst School
James Valler, seven, of The Mead School
Aged nine to 13 category
Polly Homan, nine, of The Mead School
Louis Berry, 13, of The Skinners’ Kent Academy
Freddie Kemp, nine, of The Mead School
Lilah Cockayne Francis, ten, of The Mead School
Clea Clard, 11, of Brenchley and Matfield School
Saskia Phelines, ten, of The Wells Free School
Aged 14 to 18 category
And special commendation went to:
Emma Lawrence, 14, of The Skinners’ Kent Academy
Alexander Cole, 15, of The Skinners’ Kent Academy
